Image and Video Manager (Images) automates image processing and offloads the creation of derivative images in various sizes and formats to the CDN. When an end-user requests an image, Image and Video Manager (Images) dynamically selects the optimal derivative image.

🚧

Image and Video Manager behaviors must come last

To make sure all settings execute correctly and don't get overwritten by other behaviors in your property, keep the Image and Video Manager behaviors at the bottom of your rule tree.

How it works

With Image and Video Manager (Images) Policies, you can control which derivative image this behavior serves. Policies also offer a suite of transformations, such as cropping, rotation, color adjustment, and watermarking.

You can configure and manage policies with the Image and Video Manager (Images) Policy Manager in ​Control Center​ or with the Image and Video Manager API.

A site can display multiple permutations (called derivative images) of a single image, depending on context. You often see this on retail sites. The search results show a small thumbnail of each product. The detail page of a specific product displays a larger "quick view" image. And if you click that image, a high-resolution, full-size image appears in a zoom pop-up window.

Without Image and Video Manager (Images), you would create each of those images as a separate file:

• myproductThumb.jpg

• myproductQuickView.jpg

• myproductZoom.jpg

If you configure Image and Video Manager (Images) on your site, you can create a policy named thumb that defines what a product thumbnail looks like, another policy that defines a quick view image (qv), and a third policy that defines the zoomed view (zoom). Once you define those policies, you need only manage one image file: myproduct.jpg. Image and Video Manager (Images) can create the three versions - for each product image on your site.

In addition, Image and Video Manager (Images) automatically generates multiple image formats for each size and serves the format that works best on the requesting client.

When your site receives a request for an image, Image and Video Manager (Images) checks whether the request matches an Image and Video Manager (Images) rule. If it does, it applies the appropriate Image and Video Manager (Images) features. There are two types of features:

• One-touch features. Includes two simple on/off options, controlled via your Property Manager configuration. Automatic breakpoint selection serves the best available size for the requesting device. Use Best File Type serves the image format that works best for the requesting browser. No further configuration is needed for one-touch features.

• Policy features. Encompass a wide set of tools for manipulating images, including the set of breakpoint widths, image quality, and transformations such as cropping, rotation, color adjustment, and watermarking. To apply these features, you need to define a policy (via either Image and Video Manager (Images) Policy Manager or the Image and Video Manager API) and apply it to images with a query string parameter. You can apply only one policy to a single image URL.

If your site receives a request that matches a Property Manager rule containing an enabled Image and Video Manager (Images) behavior, Image and Video Manager (Images) first checks whether the correct derivative image is cached on the CDN. If not, it creates the derivative images from the pristine image (retrieved from the cache, if available).

See the Image and Video Manager documentation for further details about this behavior and its configuration.

Incompatible products and features

The following ​Akamai​ products may affect how images appear on your website, despite your Image and Video Manager policies and settings:

• Image Converter
• Kona Site Defender

If you use any of these products, see the Image and Video Manager documentation before you get started with this behavior.